Waxahachie’s Navarro College campus EMT and paramedic certification pass rates are among the highest.

In fact, the college ranked above the national and state average for the first time in both courses this past year. The college released the pass rates in May.

“These pass rates only better our reputation and make us a reputable school in the area that students will want to come to,” said program coordinator, Chris Waller. “When they go to look at schools, they look at those pass rates and if they go there and see those pass rates, it’ll only increase our enrollment and make students want to become a [Navarro] Bulldog.”

According to numbers provided by Waller, the 2014 national and state certification exam pass rate for EMT students was 79 percent. Navarro ranked in at 89
percent for 2014. For the paramedic course, the college ranked at 89 percent, with the state average at 84 percent and the national average at 86 percent. Navarro’s paramedic students also passed the national and state average in 2013 with 88 percent.

“It just means we’re doing a good thing. A lot of us here, we work part time. Most of us work two jobs as firemen or EMS workers,” said Waller, who works for McKinney Fire Department and commutes every third day. “So, we put in a lot of hours here and a lot of hours on the job. It’s just nice. You see the hard work and everybody’s doing good and doing the right thing.”

The college usually hosts six 16-week EMT classes a year, with a day and a night class in the fall and spring to help students who may juggle other outside jobs of family responsibilities, Waller said. This summer, the college just added another daytime class as well as a day and a night class.

As far as paramedic classes go, Navarro has typically held a 10-11 month course, but started it’s first shift class in 2013 to help those who already have jobs in the field, where students can earn their certification on an off-day while working the 24 hours on, 48 hours off shift a fire department usually operates on, Waller said.

Since 2012, Navarro has had five EMT courses with a 100 percent pass rate, and one paramedic course with 100 percent pass rate. Each class typically has 15-20 students, he said.

“The end goal is to get you out there and get a job. We bring in people from different companies to come and talk to the students, different fire departments because fire does EMS predominately in the Metroplex,” he said. “But we also bring in private ambulance companies that come in and recruit to try and get these guys out there and get a job.”

Ry Mosser, a current paramedic student, is just one of the students who earned a job with the Ennis Fire Department because of his time in Navarro’s EMT and fire training program. Currently, he’s learning the pharmacology side of the paramedic program — med calculations, drug dosages, and “all the hard stuff.”

Mosser has always wanted to be in the fire service, he said, adding he wanted to do something that gave back to the community. But to get a job as a fireman, he also had to be certified as an EMT or paramedic. So, that led to him furthering his career goals, he said.

“Navarro’s close to home and has a good reputation. The instructors and coordinators are very hands-on, so we have people we can go to and talk to about what’s going on in the program and they can give us real world experiences on how that leads to what we’re going to be doing in the field,” he said. “Like med calculations in high school, you looked at Algebra and said, ‘I’m never going to be using this,’ or ‘What’s this for?’ But with med calculations, they can take what they’ve done in a shift before and use it in exactly what we’re going over. So, it’s been real nice to have experience in the classrooms. ”

Right now, the Ennis Fire Department doesn’t run it’s own ambulance, he said. The experience from Navarro helps Mosser solidify the work he’s doing and helps him keep his job with the fire department if the department ever chose to run it’s own ambulance, he said. With the fact that the county’s ambulance service broke it’s contract earlier this year, this is something that’s weighed on his mind, he said.

“Being the new guy, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I just want to be prepared,” he said. “It gives me opportunities for a part-time job as well, because I can go work at the hospital or I can work on the ambulance and put that education to use.”

But nothing beats the feeling of helping someone in need when he’s out in the field, he said.

“When somebody calls 911, it’s usually the worst day of their lives,” he said. “So to be able to take a calm demeanor and go into that situation and feel confident in my education, and the people that have supported me up to that moment just gives me a better overall understanding of the situation, a better feeling knowing I can make a difference.”

The word about the pass rate and the teachers’ reputation has spread like wildfire, Waller said, adding students typically join departments in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Some of the teachers and instructors are bragged on by ex-students and others, like Joseph Urias even come back to teach.

Urias started and finished EMT school in 2011, and started paramedic school in August 2011 and finished in July 2012, he said. Navarro College’s reputation and Waller’s desire to expand the program brought him back to the campus as a paramedic instructor in 2013, he said.

“The pass rates are phenomenal, and I attribute that to the scenarios, the making it life-like. We have very good technology here. We have SimMans, which are essentially dummies with computers inside. So, the mannequins can talk to you. They have lung sounds, you can take a blood pressure on them, feel a pulse on them. They can cough and present abnormal breathing with airway obstructions,” he said. “So, getting life-like scenarios and setting them out in the parking lot and taking the ambulance out and responding, and getting your med bags ready really prepared you for a real-life scenario.”

Before he took his national registration exam to get certified in both professions, being able to explain why an answer was what it was, thanks to the Navarro College courses, was essential to passing. Now he tries to translate that importance over to his students by relating to them through his own trials with the exam, he said.

“I tell them that they know they understand the material when they are able to then get what they’ve learned and communicate it back to someone else that doesn’t know about the topic,” he said. “If you can teach it or make someone else comprehend it, then that means you have a good understanding and working knowledge of that material.”

With some students already in the EMS field, it’s rewarding to hear them come back after a rotation in the field or clinical rotation and recognize a patient’s issue because of what they learned from his class at Navarro, he said. Waller said he feels the same.

“One of my exciting things is when a student calls me and tells me, or texts me, they got a job because they’ll call me and ask for a letter or recommendation and I’m more than happy to do it,” Waller said. “When they call and say they got a job, and then when they text and say, ‘Hey, I got this call.’” I’m pretty good with keeping up with everybody just because EMS is a small world, so you’re able to keep track. I know one of our students the other day just got a life-saving award, and one of our instructors and ex-students just got Paramedic of the Year for Coppell Fire Department. Facebook is a wonderful thing, it let’s me keep in touch with everybody. So you can see they’re doing good and being successful, and that’s all I ever want for them.”

This message is directed to those concerned about summer 2015 registration, attending classes etc.

As you may know Navarro College has experienced very unfortunate computer issues for the last few days and a large number of staff from within the college as well as outside resources have been working diligently on the problem. None the less, the computer system was somewhat unstable Monday & Tuesday morning. The following is important information related to current status and contingency in case of future errors.

Current Status

All systems are up and functioning, especially areas related to registration, tuition collection, course management etc.

Registration Extended

Since registration was essentially shutdown Monday, registration is extended until 7:00pm Tuesday the 9th and Wednesday the 10th has been added as an additional day where students can register until 5:00.

We apologize for the events regarding registration and hope all concerned will be understanding, and that offices will adjust procedures to accommodate students and faculty.

System Outlook/Contingency

While the system appears to be functioning normally, there remains one known issue scheduled to be repaired at the end of the work day Thursday. This should not impact computer service if all goes well. We are asking all offices that if for some reason we lose the computer system prior to the end of day Wednesday to do the following:

If there is no computer system, attempt to register the student for desired classes manually using hard copy forms.

Give a copy of the form to the student to be allowed in class.

Enter registration information when the system returns.

The above does not allow for knowing important information such as test scores or pre-requisites, but please just do the best guess you can and hope we don’t have to resort to this.

Deadline to pay tuition/Census Date

For summer I, Thursday the 11th is the official census day and all tuition must be paid by then. As a result of the computer issues, we are permitted to extend this to the next ‘normal’ class day which is end of day, Monday the 15th. Unpaid list notifications will begin as quickly as possible so that students can have the opportunity to take care of business by submitting payment or arranging for a loan.

I know this is a lot of information and I hope it is helpful. Let’s all work together to serve the students as best we can and thank all of you for what you do.

Ellis County high school students & graduates have another opportunity to apply for the Brilliance Dual Credit and Brilliance General Scholarships at Navarro College. The deadline has been extended to 5 p.m. on Friday, June 12.

High School students who live in Ellis County and attend a private, public, or home school program are eligible to apply for the Brilliance Dual Credit Scholarship.The scholarship amount awarded is $336 ($168 per fall and spring semesters).

Following high school graduation, students who live in Ellis County and plan to attend Navarro College (Midlothian and Waxahachie campuses) are encouraged to apply for the Brilliance General Scholarship. The scholarship amount awarded is $600 ($300 per fall and spring semesters).

Applicants will want to have information and documents handy before opening the application links: